乔纳森·斯威夫特厌女症、女性审美与审丑

Jonathan Swift's Misogyny,Aesthetic and Uglitic Appreciation of Womanhood

英国18世纪作家乔纳森·斯威夫特因其在小说《格列佛游记》和一系列"污浊诗"中对女性身体及功能的露骨描写,被贴上了"厌女症"的标签。其自传体长诗《卡德努斯和范妮莎》中的女主人公貌美智慧却遭遇感情挫败,也成为女性主义批评者对斯威夫特"厌女症"的另一例证。然而斯威夫特的诗文和私人信件对女性精神之美大加赞誉,视女性为精神平等之友,表现出女性主义意识倾向。狂欢化的污秽叙事成为斯威夫特对抗社会性别规范的手段。"丑"并非斯威夫特的终极目标,而是通过窥视和放大的视角,反拨西方以男权为中心的理性哲学传统。斯威夫特对女性身体与身体功能进行审丑描写,彰显女性情欲和激情,改变了18世纪女性形象和两性关系的社会范式。从这个意义上看,斯威夫特的审丑表达与女性主义现代性批判有着异曲同工之处。

Although Jonathan Swift is often dismissed as a misogynist, Claude Rawson, hailed by Terry Eagleton as ＂one of the finest 18th-century specialists＂ and ＂a critic of striking flair and delicacy＂, has demonstrated in his latest works, Swift＇s Angers and Swift and Others, that Swift＇s works show contradictory and nuanced views about women. In Gulliver＇s Travels and a series of filthy bawdy poems, Swift＇s impolite barefaced depiction of the female body and functions of its dismembered parts trigger violent allegation of his misogynic peculiarity. However, Swift is also noted for his loving intellectual companionship with various female friends, and in other writings makes clear that he believes in both female educability and spiritual respectability. An anti-mainstream Uglitic perspective towards the camivalesque bawdy narrative of Swift leads to an identification of a rational feminist position. Swift＇s dismemberment and reassembly of female body in his works ascend Ovidian Metamorphosis by dymystifying female body and humanizing female gender, unveil the deceptiveness of patriarchal ＂angel＂ stereotype, and endow women with equality in relation to phallocentric gender normality.